I’ve never had a run-in with him. The first time that I saw him, he was catching for the Minnesota Twins and I fell in love with him. … I like his attitude, I like the edge that he brings, I like the fact that he upsets the opposing team with the way that he goes about his business. But it’s all about one thing: winning ballgames. That’s what we’re about here in Texas, winning ballgames, and we brought in a guy that’s about winning ballgames.

On if Lance Berkman is ready to be the No. 3 hitter:

Without a doubt. He’s been handling those situations all his career. The thing is, we want to get him in here and make sure we get out of spring training with him healthy, and if we get out of spring training with him healthy and he can be in the middle of that lineup, he will definitely make a difference.

On Nelson Cruz:

I certainly expect him to be our right fielder, and anything other than what I just said until the investigation is over, I really don’t have much else to say about it.

On Jurickson Profar’s role:

There was speculation about him moving to the outfield, but you can’t take anything out of the equation. Not that we have plans on playing him out in the outfield, but you never know in a game in spring training what may happen, how personnel may get moved around. You may see him go out there, but our plans with him are to make sure that he learns everything he can about playing shortstop and second base.

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